On Tuesday, half a dozen pro-life activists from Tennessee were convicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act). Each defendant faces up to a maximum of ten and a half years in prison, three years of supervised release, and fines of up to $260,000.
The FACT Act “prohibits threats of force, obstruction and property damage intended to interfere with reproductive health care services.” Defendants argued that their protest was peaceful and only intended to persuade expectant mothers, not interfere with them. Readers can see the merits for themselves, as almost the entire protest was captured on a video still on Facebook.
We think the evidence is clear. The DOJ’s prosecution of pro-lifers under the FACE Act is disproportionate and unjust. The Tennessee case is part of a disturbing pattern of overcharging and using absurd amounts of law-enforcement resources to intimidate pro-lifers. Two pro-life activists Jean Marshall and Joan Bell were convicted under the FACE Act in a separate incident that occurred in 2020. If they faced the full penalty sought by the DOJ, they would be in prison for eleven years, into their 80s. They would be getting more time than can be given for aggravated assault or arson in the District of Columbia.
In October of 2021, 15 FBI agents were sent to the house of Mark Houck, a father of seven, to arrest him in as visible a manner as possible. He would later be acquitted. The process was the punishment.
The Biden DOJ has admitted openly that there is a mentality of political retaliation at work in their stepped-up enforcement of the FACE Act. In December of 2022, Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta commented that the overturning of Roe v. Wade was a “devastating blow to women throughout the country” that increased “the urgency” of the department’s work, including “enforcement of the FACE Act.”
The DOJ is deliberately blurring the line between protesting in front of clinics and “obstructing” access to them in order to throw the book at peaceful pro-life Americans. No other institutions in American life get this kind of special protection from free-speech acts other than abortion clinics.
Republicans must investigate how the DOJ is allocating resources and changing policy on FACE Act prosecutions, and expose these abuses for what they are: the crassest form of legal harassment. And they should seek to repeal the FACE Act the first chance they get.